PROVIDENCE, R.I. - On Tuesday, the "Governor's Portrait Commission will meet for the first time since Donald Carcieri was governor of Rhode Island.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - On Tuesday, the "Governor's Portrait Commission will meet for the first time since Donald Carcieri was governor of Rhode Island.

In the wake of Governor Chafee's decision not to seek a second term in office, the panel is meeting to start the process of choosing an artist to paint his official portrait, for display in the State House.

As head of the Rhode Island Council on the Arts, Randall Rosenbaum traditionally manages the process. With Rosenbaum unavailable on Friday, Deputy Secretary of State Paul Caranci pinch hit.

While state law requires the secretary of state to initiate the process as soon as a governor is inducted into office, he said, it generally starts later. In Carcieri's case, he said, Mrs. Carcieri was in charge of much of the decision-making around the portrait.

Caranci said the appointees to the new portrait commission, meeting for the first time at 11 a.m. Monday, include the governor's senior adviser, Jonathan Stevens; Lorraine Hynes from the state purchasing division; Rosenbaum from the arts council; Brien Brothman from the state archives and Kate Telford from the state's administrative records division. Caranci said he is also on the commission as Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis' designee.

The governor's office did not respond to inquiries, but Caranci said, he believed there was $15,000 budgeted for the portrait.